Joren's Ordeal
by Willow-379 aka WillowLea
Summary: A response to a challenge on the Dancing Dove Forum. This is my take on Joren's Ordeal. Feel free to read and review.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. Tamora Pierce does. And I also have no claim on Les Miserables. Author's Note: This is my response to a challenge on the Dancing Dove forum. Please give any comments. Oh, I wrote this before reading the It Could Be Worse series by Sulia Serafine. Please know that I do like Joren… this was just something that popped into my head and wouldn't go away after reading challenge 2 on DD. It is a song fic and the lyrics from various songs from Les Miserables. Note that the lyrics are underlined. Oh and since the Ordeal has the rule of silence… Joren's thoughts are in italics. 

_And a special thanks to Lapis Nebula for beta-ing this for me. _

_Oh and this is my first Tammy fanfic and my first songfic._

Joren's Ordeal 

The night before his ordeal, Joren was confident. There was no possible way that he could let down his family name. He would become a knight of the realm or die trying.  

Following the cleansing process, Joren heard the lectures from his knightmaster, Paxton of Nond and another knight whose name Joren deemed unimportant; after all, his family was only recently made noble, just like The Girl's. Next came the ritual night of silence.

Joren knew that he had to pass the Ordeal to become a knight. It is something that everyone has to pass to receive their shield. His family was all here. They would be waiting for him after the Ordeal finished. He hoped that The Lump would be there so that he could smirk at her and warn her that he would destroy her. 

He thought about the code of Chiveraly. "_I haven't followed it too closely in the past," he thought smugly, "_and nothing bad has happened yet._ _Why should I ever bother with it after I get my shield? _He thought. __Yet, if I don't get my shield, there is no way that father will keep me in the family. I have to get my shield or I'll be less than The Lump is. I'll be a…a…beggar. _

His thoughts where interrupted when the priests came to get him to take him to the Chamber. 

~*~

You know your place in the skies. You hold your course and your aim. And each in your season returns and returns and is always the same.   
And if you fall as Lucifer fell, you fall in flame! And so it has been and so it is written on the doorways to Paradise, that those who fall must pay the price.

Joren was a noble; he would never live the life of a beggar He could have anything he wanted, whenever he wanted. Then one day, after being put on trial for the murder of Keladry of Mindlean, he realized that the poor could more power then he ever would have suspected. For though he had not been convicted of her murder, the poor had taken it upon themselves to bring justice. He had gotten freed on a technicality, yet he was still going to die. The poor took him outside of the town and into the wood. There, they beat him and began to string the noose around his neck.

 "_What does this mean to me?!? It will never happen!!! The poor will never have the guts to do that!"_ Joren thought mockingly at the Chamber, _"Is this the best you have?" _

**IT IS ONLY THE BEGINNING*

~*~

Look down and see the beggars at your feet

Look down and show some mercy if you can

Look down and see her sweeping or'er the streets 

Look down; look down upon your fellow man!  

The poor, the merchants, even the lesser nobles came to him for help. Should he try and help or should he be himself? 

"_I can not help you. The money that I have is to build my castle and my summer estate. You will just have to find some way to feed yourselves._" He thought to all the people gathered before him. 

"But you must help us. Please! Your code of Chivalry, your birth, and responsibilities as a noble demand it!" they cried out in response. 

"_Never. I can do as I please_." Joren though back haughtily. 

"Then so shall we." They surged forward through the guards and to Joren. They started beating him and torturing him in return for all that he should have stopped but never did since had only fulfilled his desires since becoming a knight. Every person put in kicks or punches to his body. Some people attacked him with knives, stabbing him in the torso. Others started to hit his head, while some of the women started to hurt him where it would hurt the most. All the while they sang, "_Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men? It is the music of a people that will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart, echoes the beating of the drums there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes. …Join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!_"

~*~

Joren looked down at his body. There were cuts and bruises; he knew that they would hurt if he sat and thought about them. 

"_Anything else for me? If not,_ _this is easy." He thought to the chamber._

~*~

Joren looked around him. The streets were filthy, and smelled hideous. He looked down at his clothes and saw that they were not his own. They were the clothes of the peasants. _"Where am I? Why am I dressed as a filthy peasant?" _he thought to himself. 

A peasant down the road started singing softly, "At the end of the day you're another day older. And that's all you can say for the life of the poor. It's a struggle. It's a war. And there's nothing anyone's giving. One more day standing about, what is it for? One day less to be living." 

One of the street rats continued the song, "At the end of the day you're another day colder. And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill. And the righteous hurry past. They don't hear the little ones crying. And the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill. One day nearer to dying."

Joren thought at them, _"Are you mad? The nobles will take care of us."_

"Sure they will. Like the nobles of Stone Mountain ever gave a rat's tail about _us here in the streets getting ready to die. And you must be off to you job! Now Go!" They replied to him._

Joren walked down to the market and started looking around. Someone whispered into his ear, "At the end of the day you get nothing for nothing. Sitting flat on your butt doesn't buy any bread." 

Joren whirled, but no one was there. Merric and Neal started to attack Joren, "helping" him to trip, while his face started to burse. A few other nobles that Joren had toyed with while in page training came up to Joren and started to fight him with weapons while he remained unarmed. Joren fled so that he could continue to live rather then die at their hands. As he ran he could hear the people singing, "At the end of the day it's another day over, with enough in you pocket to last for a week. Pay the landlord, pay the shop. Keep on grafting as long as you're able. Keep on grafting till you drop, or its back to the crumbs off the table. Well you've got to pay you're way at the end of the day. At the end of the day."

~*~

Breathing rapidly and shallowly, Joren stopped to rest from his run. He looked around and saw that he was in a bedroom. 

"Joren, dear, what's wrong?" said a female voice from the bed. "Come here and I'll help you relax."

_"NO! It can't be…"_ He thought to himself. Slowly turning, he looked at the bed. Lying there waiting patiently for him was Keladry. 

"Come dear. I'll help you relax before I leave tomorrow for the war. You will be staying here to take care of the fief remember?" She said. 

"_What are you doing here?"_ he thought to her. 

"I'm here because you married me, you dolt. Now are you going to come to bed, or not? You know I'm leaving tomorrow. The Kings' orders are that ALL Lady Knights be around him on the front lines. But you know that, don't you?" She answered back. 

Joren panicked turned and fled. _"Married!! No! Not to the Lump! I could never live like that!" he thought terrified to the Chamber. _

"SO BE IT"

~*~ 

The door to the chamber opened. The audience waited for Joren to step out. After a minute Joren's knightmaster and a few other knights went to the chamber. Lying on the floor just out of sight of the door was Joren's body. 

"NOOOO!!! Not MY son!" was the only sound that was heard after Joren's body was carefully removed. 

The whispers and gossip slowly started, as Joren's father and mother left the room.


End file.
